Cohomology of \(SL(2,\mathbb C)\) character varieties of surface groups and the action of the Torelli group (Q627314)

It is known that the Torelli group acts trivially on the equivariant cohomology of the space of flat unitary connections on a closed Riemann surface. The analogous result in the case of the moduli space of flat \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})\) connections does not hold. This was shown in [\textit{G. D. Daskalopoulos, J. Weitsman, R. Wentworth} and \textit{G. Wilkin}, J. Differ. Geom. 87, No.~1, 81--115 (2011; Zbl 1230.14046)]. In the paper under review, the authors show that this failure is detected by the action of the Torelli group. More precisely, they show that the trivial part of the action of the Torelli group on the equivariant cohomology of the space of flat \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})\) connections contains the equivariant cohomology of the even component of the space of flat \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})\) connections. They also show that the non-trivial part consists of the even alternating products of degree two Prym representations, so that the kernel of the action is precisely the Prym-Torelli group. They compute the Betti numbers of the ordinary cohomology of the moduli space of flat \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})\) connections. Using results of Capell-Lee-Miller they show that the Prym-Torelli group, which acts trivially on equivariant cohomology, acts non-trivially on ordinary cohomology.